Singing the Praises of Shared Governance
BY LOUIS EPSTEIN Faculty have plenty of reasons to feel anxious, among them the widely publicized threats to our unique, enviable forms of shared governance. I won’t rehearse those threats here. If we spend more time bemoaning our present state than articulating our strengths, we’ll slip into a malaise from which recovery is unlikely. Instead,…
Remembering Mel Goldfinger, a Tireless Faculty Advocate
BY RUDY FICHTENBAUM Melvyn Goldfinger, who was associate professor of neuroscience, cell biology, and physiology at Wright State University, died on September 17 at the age of seventy-four. Mel Goldfinger was a champion for academic freedom, shared governance, and the economic security of the faculty–the three bedrock principles of the AAUP. It was Mel, along…
An Achievement to Celebrate
BY CAROLYN BETENSKY In the middle of a pandemic, faculty activists have accomplished something of real significance. Working with their provost, the town-hall style faculty governance group at Worcester Polytechnic Institute has managed to secure forty-five tenure lines for existing “teaching” faculty. While the idea of expanding tenure to include teaching faculty has been promoted…
Remaining Engaged, Finding New Ways to Contribute
BY MARTIN KICH I initially became involved in AAUP because I was very impressed by Rudy Fichtenbaum’s and Jim Vance’s commitment to defending our colleagues’ right to fair treatment—by their commitment to the principles that I would come to recognize as the core principles of AAUP: academic freedom, shared governance, and economic security. I recall…
Your Sunday Inspiration
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Here is an extraordinary performance of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ by the brave men and women from NHS in honor of the Llandudno’s Venu Cymru, which has been turned into a temporary coronavirus hospital. During this process, the facility has been renamed to Ysbyty Enfys, which is Welsh for Rainbow Hospital,…